Praying with Esther

15. Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: 16. "Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish." 17. So Mordecai went away and carried out all of Esther's instructions.

Some battles against evil need prayer and fasting. Jesus taught the disciples that sometimes they were ineffective in coming against evil because of their lack of discipline.

Most of the major religions of the world include 'fasting' in their disciplines. I find myself in a 'dialectic' conversation with myself on this topic, quite similar to the dialogue Thomas Aquinas would carry on with himself over major perplexing issues for which he could find no easy answers.

On the one hand, discipline sometimes has to be externally imposed, not as a punishment, but as an instructive framework for our benefit and growth. On the other hand, the key indicator that a disciple has 'discipline' is when the needed framework is self-administered.

In my own situation, fasting has too many components of a diet...which include, of course - doing without food and feeling hunger. My experiences over the years indicate that an externally 'encouraged' diet (Jean, doctor, etc.) never works for very long. If I am going to lose weight it will be because I have determined the value of the end result, and therefore the value of the process. I will then lose weight by dieting. I believe that it's the same with any situation needing discipline.

However, there might be a situation arrive which brings the external imposition, for instance, if I were to be diagnosed with diabetes. In that event, I would find an externally imposed diet necessary to continue to live and would have incentive to adopt that discipline until it became part of my routine and values.

In our spiritual world we sometimes need the discipline of focused prayer in order to confront an evil and overcome it. It isn't within our natural power. It is in the spiritual world that surrounds us. We do not combat the spiritual world by means of 'flesh and blood' but by spiritual powers in spiritual kingdoms. Jesus said that sometimes we can only cross over that threshold into a spiritual dimension to adequately confront evil through the discipline brought by prayer and fasting.

While there are hundreds of millions of people around the world who observe strict 'fast' regulations at different times during the year, I'm not one to routinely schedule and 'observe' such a practice. I find it more comfortable to keep it to myself and do it on the occasions when I feel that I am coming against something beyond my capability of understanding and coping.

If someone asks me to fast and pray along with them about an evil that has come against them, I will. Sometimes that is 'bearing one another's burden,' because it becomes a burden for me.

The process of 'overcoming' isn't always full of joy. There are times to 'feast' and there are times to 'fast.' It is a spiritual discipline.